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Picking a "best" skin is useless because it's subjective. One person's trash is another's treasure since everyone has a different look and style that they would consider what they like. Some like detailed, some like milky white like mannequin, some like dark, etc..
That being said, i've never liked any of the skins "as they are", and have always tweaked and edited in gimp to get the look I wanted. And no matter what skin you settle on, it will still look like absolute shit if the model doesnt have details that the light will interact with (you need good details via morphs, bump/normal maps with wrinkles and muscle striations,etc otherwise it will still look like a doll, unless that is the look you want). And of course, good lighting is essential. I've had good skins look great, then look like shit just because I rendered from a different camera angle because the lighting was now different and had to be changed.
Some of the best skins I like are the Perfectly Imperfect series (especially 2 & 3). I use those as a base and edit in GIMP to create better SSS maps (add veins and skin details, etc) and use better normal maps and HD morphs ( I usually add the victoria 8.1 HD morphs to any custom model and use those normals with whatever skin I created, if Im making a custom female character in 8.1). Its more work but this way will produce better skins than any ready-to-go version from a finished character being sold.
@gts6
I agree to a large extent, especially regarding lighting. G8 skins are particularly demanding of lighting. They may look good in HDRI, but terrible in point light. Others are the opposite. That's what got me hooked on g9 skins - they suffer much less from this problem.
"Picking a "best" skin is useless because it's subjective." I don't agree with that. Not everyone can and wants to tinker with fine-tuning skins, choosing them for specific lighting. Most people want skins that look good in most scenarios.
By the way, could you show the result of your fine-tuning of the skin?'"Picking a "best" skin is useless because it's subjective.'
The point of the thread was to get suggestions from other hobbyists on what they've found. It's served that purpose for me since, thanks to some of the posts here, I've found a couple of PA's that I didn't know about before and picked up a few characters for their skin mats. So, it wasn't "useless" for me.
Again, thanks to all for their suggestions.
Sounds like Daz thread where people are arguing what look real and what doesn't and how realism/reality is subjective. The only time realism should be questionable is after dropping 2 hits of LSD or some other mind altering substance.
I'd be interested in seeing the results of how G9 is better as well. I may reinstall "it" if it can provide something other than an androgynous ladyboy that requires closeup face shots.
@d0gg0d when you take away g9's textures it has nothing over g8.1. And its not even hard to convert g9 textures to g8. 15-30 minutes work at worst, really.
"Picking a "best" skin is useless because it's subjective." I don't agree with that. Not everyone can and wants to tinker with fine-tuning skins, choosing them for specific lighting.
I didn't mean it useless for a person to pick their OWN best skin, I meant it is useless to ask groups of OTHER other people to pick one, because everyone's taste is different and you will never get a unanimous decision!!
If I were to ask what car manufacturer has a good value, gas mileage and resale I'd probably get Honda, Honda,Toyota, Honda, Toyota,Subaru,Honda,Mazda.(For example)
This tells me people seem to favor Honda and Toyota. So now that it's been narrowed down to 2 manufacturer I can focus on researching those brands and what they offer. After scrolling through the sites I decide to compare an Accord to a Camry.
It's a bit easier to narrow a search if you ask a group of people with decades/ years of driving experience.
Now you might get the occasional Audi guy to toss in a comment but just ignore them.
@d0gg0d While that's true, comparing cars is much different than comparing skins. Cars have verifiable facts such as MPG, warranties coverage & lengths, etc. Skins are purely opinion because everyone "prefers" something different
If everyone liked the same appearance we'd have a car with 1 body style in one color. The only difference would be who could manufacture the best engine based on that person's needs.
Generally "most" "normal" people can "usually" agree on things. People rarely feature a 500 pound gorilla as a supermodel. Few pick cars in turd brown but I've seen a few. A pug is considered less attractive than a husky but people buy pugs.
There will always be different strokes for different folks BUT most will still agree and this is easily proven with a simple test.
"There will always be different strokes for different folks BUT most will still agree and this is easily proven with a simple test."
Absolutely correct, but that is the "most popular" item, not necessarily "the best"
With some things, the best can be identified by facts and figures, and with others, its only opinion because such facts and figures do not exist.Generally "most" "normal" people can "usually" agree on things. People rarely feature a 500 pound gorilla as a supermodel. Few pick cars in turd brown but I've seen a few. A pug is considered less attractive than a husky but people buy pugs.
True also, but in the case of skins, I definitely have seen many times people rave about certain skins, and to my eyes they look like milky white albino skins that you'd see on a mannequin! (nothing wrong with that, of course. If that is someone else's idea of the best, we are all unique) That's why I say its an opinion-based thing. But it's good starting point to get insights of peoples opinions of their favorites, you can discover many great ones you were not aware of already, and some of those might become your own favorites/best skins, and some of the recommendations wont (even though a percentage will swear that they are the best)
It is the same with every genre of items.
'Best' is just a matter of opinion & perspective.
It is more important that you find something you consider good.
I'm going to assume someone concerned with high quality skins is looking for realism and not something for Betty Rubble.
I'll also assume someone asking about skins is probably looking for one that is mostly done and requires little effort to apply. Since they are asking about it rather than asking how to edit or create one.
Since most people seem to say it looks good one way not another then I'll again assume they want one that works under most/varied conditions.
Again, again since they didn't specify black,white,brown,olive,ect... I'll assume they are either looking for a Caucasian skin because that's the most common or they dont care and just want a vender capable of producing any color skin that looks good.
Now that I'm almost done assuming, I'll assume that If I posted a series of pictures I could easily guess which pictures most of you would choose.
The OP specify asks for realism and if you have difficulty understanding the concept of realism, let me know and I'll do my best to explain it to you.
Thanks for getting it @d0gg0d. All your assumptions are correct. I was asking about peoples OPINIONS regarding realistic skin textures. Race wasn't important. In fact, imo, there is a deficit of good non-white characters (and therefore, skin mats).
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